Fracking King (Browning)

The Fracking King 
James Browning, 2014
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
192 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780544262997


Summary
A striking debut novel about boarding school, hardcore Scrabble, and fracking—a new kind of environmental novel by an important voice in the debate about fracking in America.

When the tap water at the Hale Boarding School for Boys bursts into flames, people blame fracking. Life at Hale has always been fraught—the swim test consists of being thrown into the pool with wrists and ankles tied, and a boy can be expelled if he and a girl keep fewer than "three feet on the floor." 

But the sight of combustible drinking water and the possibility that fracking is making Hale kids sick turn one student into an unlikely hero in the fight to stop the controversial drilling practice.

Winston Crwth, a Scrabble prodigy whose baffling last name rhymes with "truth," knows what it’s like to be "fractured," having grown up with his father in Philadelphia and his mother in California. On Winston’s comic journey to the Pennsylvania State Scrabble Championship, where he hopes to win an audience with beauty-queen-turned-governor Linda King LaRue, he matches wits with Thomasina Wodtke-Weir, the headmaster’s prematurely gray daughter and the most popular (read: only) girl at school; the state poet laureate, whose verse consists of copying out dictionary entries and restroom graffiti; and David Dark, son of the CEO of Dark Oil & Gas, the source of Winston’s scholarship money.

The Fracking King is a fantastically inventive debut about rowing crew, using all your tiles, and trying to save the world. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1969-70
• Where—Cleveland, Ohio, IUSA
• Education—B.A., Brown University; M.A., Johns Hopkins University
• Currently—lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvanai


James Browning is a spokesman and chief strategist for Common Cause, a government watchdog group. He attended Brown University and has an M.A. from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins. His nonfiction has been published in The Believer, The Village Voice, and elsewhere, and he is the co-author of “Deep Drilling, Deep Pockets,” a series of exposes about the political expenditures of the fracking industry.

He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, Elisabeth, and their two sons. (From the publisher.)

Book Reviews
[A] playful debut about a serious subject: fracking.... Browning effortlessly translates his passion for environmental change into a rousing, witty, and enlightening tale of outsiders and Scrabble. That the author gets his environmental message across without sidetracking Win’s journey is a testament to his ability as a storyteller.
Publishers Weekly


In his whimsical first novel, Browning puts [his environmental] background to good use by satirizing fracking’s environmental hazards while recounting the story of precocious teenager and Scrabble fanatic Winston Win Crwth.... Browning’s clever and engaging debut, with its young Scrabble champion turned unlikely environmental advocate and timely ecological theme, is a funny and thought-provoking tale. —Carl Hays
Booklist


Probably the first novel to bring together the disparate elements of hydraulic fracturing, a struggling boarding school and tournament Scrabble.... The villains of the piece, such as they are, are the members of the Dark family..., which owns a gas and oil company that has tried to cover up the dangers of fracking.... The novel is fine as long as we’re attuned to the quirky characters, but the action remains rather precious and contrived. 
Kirkus Reviews

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